Topic outline

  • Frontpage: Welcome to LCA-1003 period 4, 2023-2024!

    (This course was designed as an online course pre-Covid 19 and has no on-campus meetings or Zoom meetings. Instead, course participants complete weekly assignments online according to a strict schedule.)

    This is a BA-level course for ARTS students which fulfills the oral and written requirements to the level of 3cr. /GS, s-al Sept. 2020


    • Forum icon
      Announcements from the teacher Forum
      Main means for the teacher to send out messages to the whole group.
    • Not available unless: You are a(n) Student
      Forum icon
      General discussion among course participants (sometimes also the teacher participates) Forum

    • Information available before the course starts

    • Not available unless: You are a(n) Student
      Page icon
      Welcome! Page

      Welcome to LCA-1003, the BA-level course for you where you will practice both oral and written skills!
      And all online!

      The Week 1 assignments and OA materials are open for you. You'll be notified via MyCourses Announcements from the teacher when more information is available for you. In the meantime, please familiarize yourself with the official course description and the information already posted and get started on the first assignments (first deadline Wednesday, 28 February 9:00 a.m. and Thursday 29 February 9:00 a.m.). To keep your place on the course, please meet these deadlines or your place will be given to someone on the waiting list. Please be prepared to work with weekly deadlines. I am currently making some adjustments to the other Weeks, partly based on previous course feedback, but will be making them, too, available for you soon.

      Tip: click on the white lines in the black box, top left-hand corner, to show the menu, X to hide. This menu takes you to the course sections, instructions, assignments, submission boxes and forum activities.
      Always enter here.

      Looking forward to working with you on this course!

      Jenni

      Course instructor: Jenni Korvala
      Preferred means of communication, email: jenni.korvala@aalto.fi
      Zoom office hours on request. :)
      All submissions via MyCourses unless otherwise instructed (i.e., do not submit your assignments via email)

      ***

      The basis for this course was originally designed by Dr Diane Pilkinton-Pihko, and her materials were subsequently modified by Diane, together with Signe-Anita Lindgrén. (A!OLE-project)

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      Individual study arrangements, diverse learners, special needs Page
      Contact your teacher. Links to more information.




    • Former course participant about the pre-runner course to this one:

      "On a side note, I had a presentation last week in [name of a city in a foreign country] for [name of a big international company]. I was presenting a concept for them done in our company. Before going to stage, I was going through my notes, some of them taken from the elevator pitch path, and they helped me a lot to improve my presentation skills! The [audience/mentioning their nationality] were very happy and now we signed a partnership with them to collaborate in the future./Thanks for the learnings!" (Gaspar 2017) Quote and name shared with student consent/s-al.

    • Student feedback and slide presented at the A!OLE (Aalto Online Learning) Gala 2018.

      Two-part foto. Upper: MyCourse banner with not full foto of: Arabia Tomula mug, tablet, note book, pencil, camera, book on a green table cloth. Lower part: 2 speech bubbles with student feedback and below brief info text on course contents.

      Note. Although the course is not specifically designed for participants whose performance may be affected by specific reading and/or writing difficulties, students, for instance, with dyslexia who have attended have found it useful and accommodating. The second quote is from a student who neither enjoyed nor cared much for presenting before the course. /s-al

      This course functioned as a basis for the current one.

    •                                                                                     Updated December 2020/s-al

      Random selected feedback

      Greetings and advice to future students from students who have taken the course the present one is based on

      "I can recommend the course to everyone. The course includes many useful themes that will be useful in the future and in working life."
      "Have fun!"
      "Start working on the assignments on time!"
      "Choose a book that interests you! And stay on schedule."*
      "This is a nice course because you can study the material that really interests you."*
      "After this course I found the world of the academic books!"
      "I warmly recommend this course!"

      General comments on the course

      "This course was very effective. I think that I have developed as a text writer, a reader and a speaker. I have learned to use more vocabulary and structures of my field, too."

      "Overall a good and very useful course. I'm definitely more comfortable with my English in professional scenarios. I think it works well as a self-study course. Even better if you fix the technical issues." [Teacher comment: the course participant is referring to the presentation of materials in MyCourses. This is continuously evaluated and adjusted. Feedback from different course set-ups indicates that we may not find one solution that fits all.  However, we are still looking for it and welcome all feedback, also during the course as we may be able to make smaller changes also mid-course!]

      If you turned to the teacher for support in this course, how would you rate the support you received? If you didn't turn to the teacher, why was this so? (Did not need any; asked peers?

      "I always got the answers to my questions quickly and effortlessly. MyCourses’ messaging feature was handy for asking questions."